Save Me
by Andi-iRock
Summary: Its been over a month since the Woodbury raid to save Glenn and Maggie, over a month since the group last saw Daryl but the group learns that Daryl has been a hostage for the Governor for all the time. He's broken, scared and not the hunter they once new. Can his new family help put him back together?
1. Open the Gate

**AUTHORS NOTE- Hi guys! So I've been buzzing around with this idea for a while and I finally decided to give it a me a message or review to let me know what you think!**

**Disclaimer- As I type this through tears I must mention I in no way own The Walking Dead. This is true even though I have tried bribing them many times, and yet still, I own nothing...except a restraining order :P**

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The night air was stale and heavy as the Georgian summer ran full force as Glenn lazily paced the catwalk of the guard tower back and forth, keeping watch over the silent prison. There was a time, he remembered, when he use to be on the morning watch, after he and Maggie had woken up and had breakfast together, and said their goodbyes in favor of their daily chores. Now, however, Glenn swallowed the small lump in his throat when he thought about why he had been moved onto night watch. It was because now they were a man down, more specifically, they were a hunter down. Being even one person down meant Rick had to re-strategize everything they did from waking until slumber. Though truth be told no one really slept good anymore since Daryl was no longer with them.

It had been just a little over a month since Daryl had left them in favor of going off with his brother Merle. This was actually the assumption though, because this was also the same time that Maggie and Glenn had been kidnapped by Merle and taken to the Governor in Woodbury. Since no one had actually seen him since he said he would provide cover for the others to escape. They all figured he had caught sight of Merle in all the chaos and the two went their own way. It made sense to them since clearly Merle would never be welcomed at the prison with open arms and Daryl always said Merle was family and to the Dixons family came first, no matter what. Sure the prison survivors struggled almost day to day with meals now, but they worked out that with more frequent and farther runs, they were able to keep their heads above water, if only just barely breaking the surface.

Glenn sighed deeply, scanning the tree line for any sign of an immediate threat, while thinking about their hunter and how the whole group dynamic had changed since his unannounced departure. Leaning back against the wall, and closing his eyes, he let his mind wonder about where the two Dixons brothers were and what they might be doing. Surviving was never really an issue for the two brothers, so while hoping they were safe, well mostly Daryl, Glenn instead thought on about how much Daryl had changed since Merles disappearance in Atlanta, and how he hoped the man he came to call his friend, would not fall back under the shadow of the tyrant.

_***gunfire***_

Glenns eyes snapped open at the sudden, sharp noises ripping open the calm stillness of the night. At first he wasn't sure if he had really heard the noises, or if his mind was just creating a distraction to help keep him from falling asleep on the job. He was about to dismiss the noise until a fresh batch made their way to his ears. Scanning the area for as far as he could see in the night, even with the binoculars, Glenn could not make anything out in the dense Georgia forrest below.

_***gunfire***_

Grabbing his gun from where he had propped it against the railing, and readying his finger on the trigger of his gun, Glenn raced down the stairs to the ground floor. When he opened the door, Glenn ran head on into Rick who had been able to sleep and had been patrolling the fences for any new weak spots when the sudden gunfire began. Letting out a sigh of relief of having to choose to run away from the problem to go alert someone or take the potential foes on alone, Glenn gave a sharp nod to Rick for having already been outside.

The two made their way, with no words, down to the barricade of two overturned cars they had set up in front of the gates. The barricade provided just enough coverage that, if anyone should fire shots from the forrest they would be fully covered, but still held the perfect view of anyone who was coming straight at them. Kneeling close to the cars, Rick and Glenn peeked out on one side as more shots were fired, closer this time but now from different areas. Realization hit that there was more than one shooter spread out in the woods as they all had feared at one time or another. Counting the seconds until more shots were fired, the two men held their breath. One minute, then another. Once again, silence filled the hot Georgia night leaving the men unsettled behind their barricade.

Not daring to move an inch from behind the car, the men continued to wait, just incase someone was trying to wait them out and ambush them once they left the safety of cover. Again, one minute, then another, only this time they could hear twigs snapping parallel to the prison fence, distant at first, but growing in noise as they approached from the east side at a slow but steady pace. They could tell by the noise that their perpetrators would be on them in the next few seconds if they didn't form a plan. Slowly the men split apart and went to opposite sides of the barricade, weapons ready and trained on the spot they could now hear the person coming from.

For Rick it happened in slow motion, for Glenn it was a kick to the stomach, though when asked later, neither man could comprehend what their eyes were actually seeing. With guns trained on the spot, they could now see a silhouette taking form as not one, but two people as suspected. However, one was leaning heavily against the other, the bigger of the two practically dragging the other to keep them from falling over in a heap. More steps, and more features could be identified, but it wasn't until words were spoken that both men registered what they were seeing.

Stepping out from the dense cover of the forrest, the two men could see that Merle was dragging a very unconscious, limp, and bloody Daryl at his side. Moving as fast as he could over the small bridge to the gate opening, Merle only ground out three words.

"Open. The. Gate."

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**So? Sooooo? please let me know what you think of this. Should I continue, should I stick to fly paper, whats up? And don't be shy to let me know what your ****expectations are and where you would like to see the story go. Im always open to new ideas! Ciao!**


	2. I Aint Leaving Him

**AUTHORS NOTE:**

**HI AGAIN! WELL I GUESS THE ONLY THING I HAVE TO SAY IS THAT I AM NOT A DOCTOR...I ONLY PRETEND TO BE ONE LOL SO IF YOU NOTICE SOMETHING THAT IS NOT REALLY CORRECT, LET ME KNOW HOW I CAN FIX IT SO THAT IT DOES MAKE SENSE (YES I GOOGLES THINGS, HOPE IT ALL FITS TOGETHER).**

**DISCLAIMER: ONCE AGAIN, I DO NOT OWN THE ACTUAL WALKING DEAD, HOWEVER IM THINK OF INVESTING IN WHAT I CALL "THE STRIDING DECEASED"!**

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Merle hit the gate with such force, it caused Rick and Glenn to back up a step for fear that it would fall over on them and let all of the walkers in.

"You deaf?!" Hollered Merle, using the gate to help him prop Daryl up whose limp head lolled onto his shoulder and then back down again.

Glenn looked to his leader for the answer as to what they should do. He and Merle had history, hell, almost everyone in the prison had some form of negative history with the psycho redneck. Rick looked back at him with uncertain eyes, yes he had Daryl with him, but could he have been the one who did that to Daryl as a ploy to get the Governors men inside?

"'ey! You not see us standin here?! Open the fuckin gate!" Merle slammed the hand that wasn't helping hold Daryl up against the chain link fence making it rattle down halfway the gravel walkway.

Rick shook his head, he knew he couldn't let in the hot headed red neck, not with everything that had happened in the past.

"Nah, jus leave 'im propped right there, we'll get him in." It was a calm statement, hand lazily resting on his gun but it was the words that were not spoken that registered in Merles head.

"_We aint letting you in you sick red neck son of a bitch! You aint worth shit ta this group!" _That's all Merle could hear in his mind as his brothers shallow breathing blew across his chest from where his head now rested.

"I said open the fuckin gate. NOW! You really think 'es gonna let you touch him after everythan thats happened? Where tha hell ya think 'es been all this time?" It was Merles turn to get calm, he knew these people had a doctor, and while he had taken care of Daryl after their daddy would beat them plenty of times, he couldn't tell how bad this beating was, and his brother needed help fast in case it was serious. "I ain't goin nowhere Officer Frienly. Ya really wanna see Daryl die out 'ere?" He knew Rick would never let anything bad happen to his brother if he could help it so digging up his old manipulation habits, he turned them on full force.

"Are you? We said we bring him on in, you on the other hand, we don't want." It was a blunt statement, but with no time to waste as more walkers would be drawn from the gun shots, Rick just wanted to get Daryl inside as soon as possible.

Merle looked lethal but held his tongue for one of the first times in his life. He knew he had to change tactics if he had any hope of getting Rick to let both his brother and himself inside. Letting out a long sigh, and adjusting Daryl once more, Merle looked at Glenn for a different approach.

"I ain't leavin 'im again. You wanna take a shot at me so were all squared 'way? Fine, take a shot. Ya don' know what they did ta 'im in there. I aint leavin 'im." It was not a plea, but it was more emotion than he had ever shown before. Glenn looked at Rick for any sign of an answer.

"Rick, let em in." Ricks head snapped up at the sound of Glenns voice in all of this. There was no anger, there was no sound of a threat. Rick looked back at the two on the other side of the fence with walkers quickly approaching behind them.

"We have rules." Rick declared, undoing the locks they had rigged on the gate when they had had their first full day of exploring the prison. Glenn let out a long sigh, and helped him make fast work of the rest of the locks.

Merle heaved an actual sigh of relief and dragged his baby brother through the safety of the prison fences. Rick approached Daryl's' other side and threw his other arm around his shoulder, helping Merle even his weight out for a quicker journey back to the cell blocks.

"Glenn, get Hershel ready. Tell him he's in bad shape." With that Glenn sprinted off across the prison yard to alert the vet to Daryl's condition.

The two men grunted with their burden as they made their way after Glenn at a much slower pace.

"We have rules." Rick puffed again. "You wanna stay, you don't make trouble of any kind. What we say goes." The ex-sheriff stated matter of factly. "We have an agreement?"

"'slong as it don't kill me or my brother Ill stay outta yall's way." Reaching the cell block door, both men maneuvered Daryl in as gently as possible, trying not to aggravate his seemingly multiple injuries anymore.

"Is he conscious?" They heard the vets voice before they saw him hobble out of one of the bottom floor cells.

"Nah, hasn' been for a while." Merle declared.

"Lets get him in here then." Rick released Daryl's side as Merle managed to get him on the bed without jostling him around too much.

Stepping around Merle quickly, Hershel set to checking all of Daryl's vitals while dishing out commands to Carol every few second.

"What the hell is he doing here!?" Someone screamed from just outside the cell. Turning his head, Merle could see a heated argument taking place between that asian kid and his woman whose name he couldn't remember at the moment.

"Ill handle this." With that Officer Friendly walked out and over to the couple talking to them in a hushed voice. Merle snorted, he knew he wasn't going to be welcome here, but as long as his brother needed help, that chick would have to get over herself because he wasn't going anywhere.

"His breathing is compromised, Im going to have to alleviate some of the pressure on his lungs." The vet told the short, white haired woman who was kneeling at his side.

" What does that mean?" She asked, dabbing at some of the shallow cuts across Daryls chest, trying to clean him as best she could without making anything worse than it already was.

"Im gonna have to insert a needle into the lung thats been compromised and remove the excess air." The vet began to riffle through his medical bag with Merle looking on warily.

"That gon' hurt 'im?" He asked, looking down at his brother who was clearly having a hard time breathing.

"It'll hurt him a lot more in the long run if we dont do this now." Before Hershel could begin to direct Carol on what to do Daryl suddenly took a large, painful gulp of air and started thrashing about the bed in pain.

"Whats happenin" Merle yelled over the vet, trying to get to his brother.

"He's having a hard time getting enough oxygen into his lungs. Its sending his body into shock! Carol, hold his legs, we need to do this now!" The vet exclaimed, placing the needle end of a very large syringe against his brothers back, Merle could only look on as the two worked to save his brothers life.

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**I KNOW...TO BE CONTINUED! ANY WHO, LEAVE ME A COMMENT ON WHAT YALL THINK SO FAR!**


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